I've only ever had a hard lockup once, where I couldn't even
reset the device with the reset button, and that was when (I think) the
battery reached a pretty low point and at the same time the hard drive was
being accessed. I'd had my H140 for a while by then, at least a year and a
half, coming on two years, so it may have just been that the device was
getting towards the end of its life cycle (used almost daily)...
It's also possible the button just wore out or the solder broke. I have
been using a paperclip on mine, and whilst it worked great for a while,
lately I have to hit it more precisely for it to work. I think the
sharpness may have worn the button a bit (I'll check next time I open it).
Once I did that and put it back together again, the device wouldn't boot
at all, but I took it home, plugged it in and left it charging overnight
and in
the morning it powered up first time.
Did the reset button work again after that?
But yes, I do believe that the reset button isn't a hardware switch at
all,
to me it looked just like a software switch just like the other buttons on
the device.
It is a normal button, but not 'software' in the sense the others are (as it
works even with Rockbox hung) - most likely a CPU reset type signal, or
maybe it interacts with a very low level of the firmware.
--
gl
